The Great Christmas Tree Hunt of 08

This year we went back to going out and hunting our tree.Sure it is easier to let someone cut it for us but we just figured we would take the kids out to get one this year right from the woods. It wasnt hard, just wet. And the tree is doing well, losing so few needles!

We packed the kids into the borrowed truck and headed off to the Jollytrees woodlot.

Excited to go!


Someone is a little bit wound up.

The great tree chooser looking for the perfect tree.

Ready for Action here! Just pick a tree already!

We didnt pick this tree in the end lol

We actually had a lot of choices that would have been fine; but we ended up going to a section that was hard to get into and picking a tree way in there through the thorns lololol

Still getting along :)
I have to say the kids were pretty well behaved considering the thorns and the mud and the wet feet.

We picked a tree and they started cutting. It was harder than it looked!

My Turn!

No My Turn!

No NO, my turn!

Carrying the tree to the truck

We are so very proud of our tree hunting abilities!


We didnt get around to decorating the tree for a few more days. It did need time to dry out after spending the night in a snow.

Scott brought it in and put it onto my beautifully cleaned carpets and I thought that sucked but I guess it was inevitable. lol It had to come in. Dripping needles as it went.

Holly helped us decide if the tree was straight or not. It was not. HAHAHHA it was eventually acceptable.

Scott put the lights on while the kids were at school. It wasnt fun; I wanted the blue then the red lights around the trunk of the tree.

It took quite awhile. lol.

When the kids came home they were right into the decorations. I decided which ones I would allow on the tree and those are what we put on. Alot of them are breakables so I can only really hope they all survive the season. Carpet will help.


Lots of cooperation made it easy to get the job done.
Dont forget that it is in front of a window and needs to be decorated on all sides! lol



Almost finished?
TADAAA Here is our tree!!!


Made some paper ornaments to go on the tree; my idea was blue and red, and the ornaments had to be the red lol

Christmas Concerts

This christmas posting stuff is going to be endless. It gets tiresome hahaha its the same thing year after year and I could just copy and paste over and over haha

But still I will post photos and try to explain what the photos are.

Complications. Caused by a jumpy school board and a storm that never happened.
We wake up to school cancellations. Usually cause for celebration Unless it is school concert day. At Douglas street school. Which no longer has students by the way.
So their concert was postponed. And the snow date? (yeah we have snow dates in Canada.) Was for the same day/night as Annika's school's concert. Yeah there is the complication. Also the same date as Taylor's Marigold Center concert with the choir. Complicated.

So comes the Snow date. DSS has 2 concerts because they are too small to accomodate all of the people who would want to come and see the concert.

I went to the afternoon concert. and took tonnes of photos.
the DSS choir always goes first. They did awesome songs.

Holly's class was very cute. She is in Grade 2 this year.

They are doing this cute song where they rub each others noses and arms and stuff with partners. too cute.

Still cute

Taylor's class dida play "the littlest Christmas Tree". It went really well. She has a solo in it!

All these funny tree costumes caused some stress...how do we make a darned tree costume?
ugh.
I figured we would wrap Taylor in pine tree garland and she would be a tree. A cool looking tree. Dressed in brown and wrapped in branches.
The night before the SECOND date for the concert, I hear a rumor that Taylor doesnt like this costume and wants a costume like all of the other kids are going to be wearing. Bristol board tree. SIGH. So much for my idea. Next morning I am making a darned tree and taking it to school just before the concert. I guess it is nice that they all looked the same; I just had this impression from talking to the other moms that the trees were all going to look different and didnt really think it mattered that TAylor had a different costume but I guess they came to the conclusion that bristol board trees were going to be easiest. For them.
Taylor's Solo. Really cute.


And she was chosen by Santa to be the christmas tree.



Ok now we fast forward past the afternoon of tree decorating, and on to the evening concerts. The girls dressed for the occassion nicely.

Taylor dressed in Choir Dull. Lol

Annika as usual beautiful in one of my favorite dresses ever!

And Holly in a dress, it happens occassionally and no blood was shed over this outfit lol.

I Dropped Scott and the older girls at DSS for their concert and I took Annika to her school for her concert. She met up with her class and quickly found her best friends who had by coincidence dressed in the same outfit lol

Decorating the tree. Im so glad that Annika's class was up first; Made for a really quick concert for us lol


Annika's class did 3 songs and then we were OUTTA there. It isnt that I didnt want to see Annika's entire concert; I wanted to get back to DSS for their very last ever concert there before they all head off to the new elementary school in January. It was a really good concert too!

The finale with the entire school present on and in front of stage. Kinda just like 2 years ago lol with the Douglas Mountain song only they added Saying Goodbye to Douglas Street School and lots of people cried lol.


This concert ended WAY late and Taylor didnt make it to her Marigold Center Recital. Maybe next year!

The Weekend Swim Meet

In Antigonish :)
Taylor's first swim meet and she was very excited to go! We went with Annika and Taylor and spent the night with my grandparents in New Glasgow!

The first day was long; We left here in the morning and drove to Antigonish where Taylor popped right into the water and I wandered around to find the Observation Deck which was kinda nice as it was a good view and great for photos if you had a decent camera which I did hahah

Taylor warmed up and her first race was right away. It went well and her time was good; for her first meet. She was not too nervous. All of her times would be personal bests as she has not been to a meet before.

Her first was 50 M freestyle. It was a good start. She did breaststroke and backstroke, both of which she likes. She got disqualified from breaststroke for not kicking right. She also got DQ'd from 200 M IM which was Butterfly, Breaststroke, backstroke, and freestyle; on one of her turns she didnt touch with 2 hands. She didnt finish her 200 M freestyle because she thought she might throw up in the pool. But she did get times in the rest of the events.

Staying with my grandparents was nice...and unsettling at the same time. Everything about being there just reminds me of my father and its hard to not think about sad things. But my grandparents are wonderful and made us feel very welcome and it was a great night. They sent us off to Antigonish in the morning with very full bellies and a lunch bag :)

Second day was a shakey day which was when Taylor wasnt feeling well and Annika was losing patience. But Taylor still had fun and loved being at the meet and it wasnt a bad day just harder lol. Something to learn for next event! lol and lots of things to work on!

Great job Taylor!


Waiting for her first event; a little nervous!

About to dive! She is going head first which is a huge accomplishment!

Dive!



Breaststroke!


Butterfly!


Crawl!


Chatting with her coach!


Pushing off for her back stroke!


Backstroke!


Waiting for another event; much more relaxed now!

Wasting time because I have so much of it

Sitting here giving an exam which I hope is going well. They keep giving me dirty looks. KIDDING but I never know how to guage these things...if they are giving me dirty looks is it because the exam is hard or is it because I am tapping this keyboard? Which is so much better than the flipping of pages and textbooks if I were actually working on the next exam which I should be doing; and much better than the sniffing and gagging of the chick in the test last week who had a cold and apparently no kleenex.

So I am sitting here blogging about some actual really info rather than the recent funny videos and photos I have been putting on for a laugh.

The term is coming to an end for me and although Ive had a great time this term I am looking forward to sleeping a little better and reading 2 books I want to finish. Ive had little time to read this semester. I know 2 of the courses I am doing are "done before" but I so wanted to make them better, I redid a tonne of them. And did much better. And the students this semester were awesome. We just finished presentations and there wasnt a single one that I wouldnt listen to all over again. Interesting topics, well spoken, tonnes of correct information, lots of debate on the controversial topics; Ive really enjoyed these students! Seriously going to miss them next year. TOTALLY.

I will have a couple of weeks before Christmas to shop, finish moving into the house, and work on next semester. Both courses after Christmas are ones I have done before. But again I am striving to have them "better". Much better in fact. LOL neither one was really easy and I want to make them more interesting as well.

Moving into the house will be a key to a stressless Christmas. We still have stacks of stuff in the garage which means my car cannot get in there and my stuff is still missing. how long should it be in boxes before I conclude its of no use to us? I need to finish cleaning some of the house (hello carpets need to be clean! seriously. Someone said they looked like they had been cleaned before the people there moved out; Im thinking the only place that person looked was under where the bed was because I am thinking the rest? not even close.) So I need to clean the carpets and it would be awesome if Taylor could have a bedroom, it was so "oh it will be done right away" and we are now zooming towards 2 months in the house and she is still sharing with the computer room. and Ive got no scrap space.

Shopping should be somewhat simpler than it could be; our kids are getting only a few things beacuse we bought them the house. And I dont want Scott to get me anything cause I dont need anything (although I am going to start a search for end tables to match my coffee table) I think the house is adequate for a Christmas gift for the next 35 years. Cause that is how long the mortgage will take to pay off the way the economy is going lol.

Scott is currently away on business so tonight should be one of those stressless nights with lots of sleep and tonnes of work getting done. And when I say this I actually mean quite the opposite but with what is ahead I cant bring myself to write that. I have a lot of work to get done, all the normal work of the house, Holly's hockey, Im missing soccer, and the kids tend to get a little more "mischievious" when Scott is away as they are aware I cannot be policing everywhere at once and when I say GO DO THIS it is hard to enforce unless I stand over them. The older kids are with Nanny today as there is no school.

Because of parent teacher. Report cards went home this week and Don't I have 3 absolutely brilliant children? Of course I do. And no problems at school since we are apparently taking the see no evil hear no evil approach with the bullying situation going on in Taylor's classroom. I see that getting worse before it gets better and I only hope Taylor doesnt get herself in the middle. She has such great intentions of supporting and defending her bestest but I am encouraging her to refrain from slinging mud herself; TELL someone what is happening and make it stop but its not necessary to add to the mess.

But curriculum wise all three munchkins are working at their grade level and doing well in the process whatever that means. lol I hate their report cards with really have so little actual information. What does a 3 mean when a 5 is almost unattainable? That my kids are average? I dont think they are. And Im so unbiased. Actually I am unbiased and I still think my kids are doing extremely well in the learning part of school. Holly is such a good reader and Annika is amazing with language. Taylor is just Taylor lol all around wowsa.

Not biased.

Pets, kids, house, activities, etc etc all going well.
Holly is enjoying hockey - she is on the intermediate novice team this year.

Taylor is enjoying choir this year although we are much more aware of "things that are not really going well" and some unfairness as far as who is getting the special parts and solos and who is getting extra opportunities that are not offered up to the general choral population. SIGH. Whatever, she is learning and singing and reading music and likes it so we will continue to do whatever foolishness asked of us such as last night's "school night" concert at "bed time" that we had to get our kids to; we arent allowed to watch but we can wait in the hot waiting room if we choose (not encouraged but rather encouraged to leave and come back to pick them up but there was no "pick up time" so what does one do) and wear the jumper with a white button up blouse, black tights, flat black shoes, and tie hair up with a black satin or velvet ribbon; no jewelry, no make up, nothing interesting about you.

Im sure they did a lovely job. I opted not to wait but instead was lucky enough to have a friend pick up the girls and bring Taylor right to my door; I was able to at least get the littles into bed almost on time and didnt have mutiny this morning frmo the entire brood.

Gottsta go. Consider kept up.

up to date?

Cause its a funny photo

It made me laugh! Im using it in a companion animal exam tomorrow :)

Old Mama

Holly was telling me that she finds it easy to remember how old she is because she was born in 2000 and it is now 2008. She things Annika has a harder time because she was born in 2002. And I said Taylor has even a harder time; she was born in 1998!

So Holly gives that some thought and says "so when were you born mommy? 18....13???" Ugh do i ever feel old!

Things kids say

When we were driving home from Annika's dance class Monday night she was watching the house decorations as we went past. She says " That house had a tree up! Its not even close to Christmas! 40 Days, people!!!"


Holly while shopping for her Birthday Presents: "I like this magazine. Mom Im going over here to look at a book if you feel like BUYING anything"
When I told her to forget what she was seeing, she picked it right up. "forget what? What you are seeing. I dont see anything. Ok forget it. Forget what?"

Just a funny

Annika

Bows are Done!

For 2008 the bows are done again! Now I can cash the pay cheque and go grocery shopping :):):) Im very excited about that!

What has been going on lately? Bows. Lots of bows. When Im not doing bows Im doing school work and running the kids around from one thing to another. Things have been very busy :)
Ive been running again and went to the gym again where I have not been going. I just dont have a lot of time. now that bows are done I feel like I can take the time to go to the gym again.
I actually got alot of the house stuff put away today; emptied more boxes and cleaned a lot! cleaned the little kid's bedrooms so I could vaccuum. Put stuff away and moved stuff in our room. Its coming slowly but surely! I need to finish putting away some stuff in the basement so I can move more stuff in there. Bookcases so we can put the books away. Stuff like that. There is a whole lot of stuff from the tv stand to be put back into the tv stand. Cant wait! lol

Annika had a hair cut this week; I gave in and let her cut it. not as short as she wanted but shorter than it has ever been :)
It looks really sweet on her but I will miss that long hair :(





I got my hair put back to a more appropriate colour too! lol




Taylor sang with the choir at the birthday celebration for Muriel Duckworth . They sang at the Rebecca Cohn and Taylor was thrilled to do it, feeling it was a once in a lifetime event and missing her first swim meet for it. I think she made a good choice :)



Swimming is going great, Taylor is getting much better and is having so much fun :) she doesnt complain about practicing three times a week! I go running while she is there swimming. She has a swim meet first weekend in December.

Holly's hockey is going great! She starts games next week! It is so much fun when they start games!

Annika is dancing and loving it. I think she is having a little christmas dance for us.

I cant think of anything else important enough to write down. :)

A Good Day :)

Last night we were happy to be able to be celebrating a Victory :) Scott's father has held the position of county councillor for 8 years and last night won his third term as coucillor and that was call for a party! :)
we left 2 of the kids there for drama and church this morning; Holly came home with us. She's always been the nervous one.

This morning Scott milked the cows and so when I got up it was very quiet here. :) Holly slept in until almost 9 am :) yay!
I started early doing bows; it took a while with a few breaks to do some bows to send to my Cameron girls lol. The kids came home, we had breakfast and dinner, and by the time I was finished doing the second bag it was time to go to my first hockey game ofthe year! While looking for my elbow pads I came across a good surprise.

In August after our last ball hockey game we celebrated at the Engine Room and took some photos. The next morning I could not find my camera. After awhile it was concluded I had left it behind at the Engine room. There was no sign of it. I was very upset; its really not like me to leave things behind at all and besides the money the camera was worth, there were photos on it I really wanted, like our team photo. Over the next few weeks i lost a lot of sleep and a lot of stress over this camera being gone. I hated even thinking about it and would end up getting up in the middle of the night to NOT think about it.

While searching for elbow pads (which are missing still) I looked in the end of my Ball Hockey bag; there was the camera. OMG. I was so happy to see it! AND the spare key to the CRV was also there. That bag sat on the back deck for weeks mocking me as it held 2 things I had searched high and low for.

So I am thrilled to have my camera back and a photo of our ball hockey team to boot!



After the hockey game, at which I scored a goal and we won the game, there was a BBQ in our new neighborhood. A Welcome to the Neighborhood, for us and for the people across the road. OH it was so fun! First of all, I was an hour late because I forgot about the hockey game and I just couldnt miss the game; first one this year!
So when I showed up Scott and the girls had met everyone :) What a nice lot of people we have moved in next to! They are fun and nice and friendly and its almost like we are living in a movie where we love our house and the neighborhood seems too good to be true; Im waiting for the murdering and adultery to start;
seriously a wonderful neighborhood to have moved into and Im very glad to be here!

I had a burger and some fruit and then everyone played a game of soccer. Hilarious! Holly got hit by the ball 3 times! She called herself the target!

lol
so that was my awfully good day!

Catching Breath for a moment

Whew. What a hectic few weeks I have had. Im a bad blogger. But seriously, there is not exactly anyone waiting out here with baited breath to see what I am going to write. And if I dont get something posted for a bit, who is going to care?

I didnt blog Exhibition. I didnt mean to not blog it. Its just got a lot of photos and I didnt get at them yet. Resizing takes too long and I dont know if I will get to it. Ditto on Pro Show. Both are amazing things where Taylor had lots of 4H accomplishments, but I just need to get around to things.

We did a lot of renovations to our house. I have all the photos showing the progress, but Ive not blogged them yet. We made it a complete, beautiful little house. And Ive not shown my photos.

I started a new semester at AC. Its been good, picked up another course to teach and Im in a new office. Its going really well.

We sold said house. In about 5 days more or less. It was time to sell. Too small and too much not what I wanted to be spending my time in.

We bought a new house. And we moved over Thanksgiving weekend. With the help of a lot of generous, energetic friends and family members, we managed to pack up everything and move in like 3 days. And now are still working on moving things in, unpacking the truck, and unpacking the boxes. Its exhausting. I dont know which way to turn and I am doing pretty good tossing away stuff. Im so happy to be in this house but I wish I could stop and enjoy it a little bit :)

So Im pretty much brain dead all the time recently. I might get it back together here shortly or i might not. I dont expect to be catching up with things lol but maybe if I forego photos, I can write more often. lol but mostly its the photos that y'all wanna see, not the writing. So what's the point lol